4500 km of driving, I flew over 10k air miles, and blew through countless towns to setup the 10 RISE Fly Fishing Film Festival shows I attended.  I was originally supposed to be in Europe for 14 days, but at the last moment I happily rescheduled my flight for another 2 weeks.  1 Month in Europe – it doesn’t get any better!

Allow me to make my way through the exhaustion of how I feel since I’ve been back.  To start, and really the central character on this trip, was Morten Huwyler.  He was my trustworthy guide but was never afraid to tell me to Fugof when my “Proud American” ways were getting

on his nerves.  Thanks Morten.

Morten and I’s task was to travel through Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Slovenia to help facilitate the RISE Film Festival.  In this haze of movement, I can’t recall all the towns but I do remember a blur of rocket-cars flying past on the Autobahn and waking up to Morten telling me we’ve arrived in Berlin/Stuttgart/Munich/Cologne/Hamburg/etc…

We were lucky enough for things to slow down after the first 2 weeks – we were able to escape to Slovenia for a few days of fishing.  If you’ve never been to Slovenia, DON’T GO.  The rivers are chocolate and brown ALL THE TIME, the trout DON’T eat mayflies in March, and the people, oh wow, the people are incredibly rude.  (Ok, I’m completely lying – but if you blow up my spot, i’ll be pissed - Definitely hook up with Luka and/or Marko while there – 2 of the most gracious, fun, skilled fly-fishermen I’ve met in awhile.)

The amazing part of this trip was being apart of the Fly-Fishing and Imago communities around Europe, although very different from the states – people still smile at a large fish caught, or lost, and feel that universal feeling of a deeper connection to the world – We ALL understand it.

I want to thank Imago Fly Fishing, especially Morten for putting up with this redneck American for a month.  It was an incredibly fun trip and I’m excited to hopefully see everyone next year!